All classes and no fun makes students’ life dull

For the first-year science students in Delhi University, college has not been as much fun as they had hoped. Mallica Joshi reports.

For the first-year science students in Delhi University, college has not been as much fun as they had hoped.

“We are just attending classes throughout the day. There is no time to enjoy college life. In fact, we have no college life. I thought college was fun,” said Sargam Gupta, a first-year BSc (Prog) Physical Sciences student at Kirori Mal College.

Gupta and her classmates have back-to-back classes from 9am to 4.30pm every day. For days with practical classes, they stay back till 5pm or 6pm.

“Our seniors were luckier; they never had so many classes in a day and used to enjoy the first few months of college,” said Tayyab Hussain, another first-year student from BSc (Prog) at Kirori Mal.

Most students, who took admission in the 13 science courses in which the semester system was introduced last year, have complained of a hectic schedule that they were not able to put up with.

"We had a lot of problem in the first semester as teachers could not finish at least 20% of the course before the exams due to frequent strikes," said Jatin Khattar, a first-year student.

"The students do not get any time for co-curricular activities. The atmosphere of the college, that of a holistic growth, will finish if the semester system is imposed," said PK Vijayan, who teaches English at Hindu College.

Meanwhile, teachers from Kamla Nehru College joined the protest against the semester system on Monday by taking classes in the college lawns.

While teachers have voiced their discontent about the hasty implementation of the semester system, students have not found a platform to voice their discontent.

Students, too, plan to join their teachers in the campaign against the semester system.

"Some students are planning to upload on Facebook all the lectures which were taught near the vice-chancellor lawns,” said Nandita Narain who teaches Mathematics at St Stephen's College.